Our culinary town winner serves up the heart and soul of Acadiana
It’s no wonder Lafayette, Louisiana, won The Local Palate’s first-ever readers’ poll for the South’s best culinary town. Lafayette is world famous for its Cajun cuisine, garlicky links of boudin, meat-and-three plate lunches, and rich, lacquered gumbo studded with andouille and okra. But as proud as it is of its Acadiana roots, this university town is not ossified in an amber bubble. Driven by passionate chefs and creatives inspired by global cultures, Lafayette’s food scene is in constant motion. It’s home to the state’s only flour mill run by a Breaux Bridge baker committed to the science and community of farming. There’s a downtown wine shop that sells new- and old-world family-fueled natural wines, sourdough pizza, and tinned seafood. A new speakeasy shows off a cocktail list inspired by Napoleon’s missteps. A café for soup dumplings is as welcome as the burger joint that’s been slapping meat between two buns since 1947. It all adds up to an entrancing eating experience in Louisiana’s Hub City.
Best Places to Eat and Drink
Best Brown Gravy: Laura’s II
Laura Williams Broussard’s signature brown gravy has been simmered by three different generations, ladled over meat and-three plates since 1968. Laura’s II is known for oversized baked stuffed turkey wings, smothered okra, and some of the best rice and gravy of all time. 337-593-8006
Best Plate Lunch: Acadian Superette
This old-time superette is anything but old school. Sure, there’s a daily plate lunch, barbecue is smoked in house, and fried seafood is local. But the newfangled specials are epic, like the pork belly bánh mì or a recent chopped brisket melt with cheese and bacon on Texas toast.
Best Hot Fudge Sundae: Borden’s Ice Cream Shoppe
Folks have been screaming for Borden’s ice cream since before the first location opened in the 1940s. Lafayette is home to the last retail Borden’s Ice Cream Shoppe in the world, an old-fashioned parlor that dishes everything from flips and freezes to sundaes and splits. The prices are a throwback to a gentler age.
Best Bakery: Lucía
The croissants dazzle, each a nautilus of laminated perfection the size of a newborn’s head. Welcome to Lucía, the scratch bakery from pastry chef Robert Sandberg and his brother Ruebin. What started as a pandemic pop-up is now a flaky ode to a rich Viennoise baking technique.
Best Cooking With Fire: Vestal
The hearth is at the heart of Vestal, the downtown contemporary Southern experience from chef Sullivan Zant. Whether it’s roasted oysters dusted with furikake, shaggy maitake mushrooms sizzling in sunflower seed butter, or slices of beautifully seared rib-eye, understated elegance prevails.
Best Biscuits: Edie’s Biscuits
Late risers hungry for breakfast, y’all just move along. The action is over by 11 a.m. at Edie’s, where folks line up starting at 5:30 for a true breakfast bonanza. The $3 biscuits are legend, flaky altars for the likes of eggs and cheese, sausage gravy, and chicken-fried steak. Or get one sweet, topped with blueberry jam or cinnamon.
Best Old-School Burger: Judice Inn
No burger wars fought here. The Judice Inn has served its signature burger, dressed with secret sauce, “shrettuce,” American cheese, and a slice of onion, unwaveringly since April 5, 1947. Fork over $5.25, and this wax-paper wrapped classic is yours. Yes, there are other things on the menu. But why?
Best Dim Sum: Dumpling Hour
This new Sichuan-light restaurant offers pot stickers and buns along with the always-tricky-to-eat but so-worth-it xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. Up front, a cadre of chefs intensely stuff round after round of homemade dough for dim sum. The usual fried rice and chow mein keep the less adventurous happy.
Best Modern Italian: Park Bistro
Opened by chef-owner Peter Cooke in 2022, this polished bistro in the Saint Streets part of town is intimate and friendly, with interesting cocktails and unfussy seasonal dishes. The crispy shrimp with chili garlic crunch and eggplant parm lasagna are just two outstanding options. The veg-forward sides impress.
Best Speakeasy Cocktails: Le Grenadier
Louisiana born, Houston-trained beverage pro Mia Stanford reimagined a downtown storefront into a sultry speakeasy lounge, aiming to tempt the over-25 set downtown for creative cocktails and a chill vibe. The intimate LGBTQ+ welcoming space invites all for sultry sips, pop-up dinner parties, and DJ beats. @le_grenadier_laf
Claim to Fame
Festival International de Louisiane is a free, five-day festival that brings the French-speaking world to downtown Lafayette, drawing 300,000 Francophiles to the capital of Acadiana. Music, dancing, art, and culture from multiple African countries, France, Belgium, Louisiana, and beyond connect locals to shared roots. Naturally, the culinary offerings, from boudin to beignets to jambalaya, are magnifique. Bon Creole’s creamy crawfish spinach and artichoke boat is just one of the festival’s showstoppers. Created by Randall and Julie Montegut based on a dip they grew up with, the creamy, savory treat is stuffed in a large French boule, which is dismantled bites by bite, best enjoyed to the swampy sounds of Cory Ledet’s zydeco.
Meet a Local: Morgan Angelle, owner/baker, Straw Cove Baking Company
Most of your baking experience is in New Orleans, including five years at Bellegarde Bakery. Why did you open your wholesale bakery in Lafayette?
I’m from Breaux Bridge and my wife Dené Carroll is from Lafayette, which is where we met. We moved to New Orleans in 2013 so I could take my skills to the next level. But we always knew we wanted to open a place back home.
How is the Lafayette market responding to your bread?
We are in 25 markets, groceries, and restaurants so far. We also sell our flour. I make less than 1,000 loaves of bread a week, all of it from our own flour.
You are the only baker milling flour in Louisiana. Why do you do it?
I wouldn’t do what I do without the connection to farmers. We go through 2,500 pounds of wheat a month, organic wheat from family-owned farms like 4 Generations Organic Farms in ALVA, Oklahoma, and Camas Country Mill in Eugene, Oregon. I know them, I’ve been there. Milling flour is very intuitive. The mill I use is made by Andrew Heyn, who started his company, New American Stone Mills, in 2015. I have mill number 151. Milling allows bakers like me to get closer to growers and scientists, to become a community. I like to know where my wheat comes from. Grain is like an apple: The second you break into it, it starts to oxidize. The closer it is to the milling process, the better the bread is going to taste.
What’s your first bread memory?
Eating my sandwiches on Evangeline Maid bread. It’s what everybody ate.
Where to Shop
Wild Child Wine Shop
Wild Child Wine Shop channels Katie and Denny Culbert’s wanderlust on their home turf. (Denny was also our cover photographer!) A repository of natural, small-batch wines, local art and home goods, homemade sourdough bread and pizza, and art books, this world-class array ups the downtown game, big time.
Vermilionville
Museum gift shops can offer a windfall of local goods. Vermilionville, a living museum of Cajun culture, proves the point, boasting a curated gift shop representing more than 60 regional artists—clearly manager Jeremy Dotson’s passion project.
Earl’s Cajun Market
When it’s time to fill the cooler to bring a taste of Acadiana back home, a stop at Earl’s Cajun Market is de rigueur. It’s all here, from classic and seafood boudin to so many kinds of sausage to hot cracklins and plate lunches—and is it too soon to think about turducken for Thanksgiving?
Where to Stay
Maison Mouton Bed & Breakfast
This antebellum inn is in the heart of the historic district, walking distance to downtown. Run as a bed-and-breakfast hence the impossibly long wooden table in the main house’s dining room—the inn also features a smattering of private cottages perfect for a friends’ or family getaway. Acadian style shoots through the place, from wooden antiques to the ancient live oaks that grace the gardens—and it’s pet friendly with a $25 fee. Chef Craig Kimball serves a hearty breakfast at 8:30 a.m., a chance to load up on local sausage and eggs and chat with other guests, many from far-flung cites around the globe.